TiVo’s family homecoming

Advanced television services and DVR specialist TiVo has chosen Chicago’s NCTA Cable Show to unveil the next generation of its whole home solution, with the addition of robust HD video streaming and two new set-tops to its service provider product family. TiVo Premiere Q, the company’s first-ever quad-tuner gateway set-top box, and TiVo Preview, its first non-DVR HD set-top box, will join TiVo’s existing advanced television solutions offered to cable operators.

Consistent with TiVo’s mission to bring the TiVo experience to every screen in the house, these new products are designed to enable TiVo’s operator partners to provide a superior advanced television experience to non-DVR households, single DVR households, as well as multi-room DVR households. With its four tuners and support for broad range of video on demand content over IP, the TiVo Premiere Q serves as an advanced video gateway, while TiVo Preview provides the full TiVo user experience for non-DVR households and also functions as a thin client complement to those using a TiVo DVR, creating a multi-room viewing experience. Both set-top boxes support the full integration of operator services such as Video on Demand, PPV, CallerID on the TV and linear programming, plus access to broadband applications and services.

“TiVo’s solution for cable has stood apart in delivering the only offering that fully integrates the operator’s linear and VOD content with broadband content and application choices,” claimed David Sandford, TiVo’s Vice President and General Manager of TiVo’s service provider business. “With the introduction of the TiVo Premiere Q and TiVo Preview, TiVo is extending its advanced user experience and leading multi-room capabilities to provide cable operators a cost effective and highly differentiated solution for every type of household and every television in the house.”

TiVo Preview completes the whole home solution for operators who can now deploy the TiVo user experience in every room of the home. It provides the same HD user experience as the TiVo Premiere and Premiere Q and fully integrates an operator’s linear and VOD content with broadband content and application choices, and immediate streaming access to DVR content from a TiVo Premiere or Premiere Q. Similar to Premiere Q, Preview includes integrated MoCA and Ethernet for home networking and multi-room applications.

“As the first cable operator to deploy TiVo Premiere last year, rolling out a whole home solution from TiVo is the logical next step for our company,” said Jim Holanda, CEO of RCN. “We look forward to offering our customers the TiVo user experience, with access to their recordings, RCN VOD and broadband content options on every television screen in the home.”

These products will initially be available through select cable operators. RCN will be the first domestic cable operator to offer subscribers the Premiere Q and Preview, in addition to its current TiVo Premiere offering. Suddenlink expects to extend its current TiVo offering through these and other TiVo products. Operators who embrace any of TiVo’s three products will now be able to realise expanded whole-home capabilities and the same user experience on every TV. TiVo plans to make both new products available to its cable operator partners later in 2011.